Pendiente Mariposa

A fantastic being with human head and arms and a butterfly body with spread wings flying downwards is carved on this interesting pectoral (chest ornament). The down feathers that decorate the head of the character relate it to sacrificial victims, and the eye placed in the center of the piece symbolizing a star indicates its nocturnal nature. These attributes suggest that the represented character is identified as a sunset butterfly, maybe the soul of a woman who died in childbirth and became one of the cihuateteo (“goddesses”), who in compliance with mythology, came down to earth in certain dates of the ritual calendar. The piece was found inside an offering to the goddess Coyolxauhqui during an excavation of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan.Arqlga. Bertina Olmedo Vera